The entertainment industry regularly provides us with excursions to the Marvel Universe. Some of its heroes are known and loved, others hide in the shadow of the former, new, bright and memorable characters and their opponents periodically appear. Captain America and the Avengers is a quality arcade action game developed by Data East in October 1991. Four prominent fighters of the Avengers group take part in it: Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye and Vision, and the main villain is the Red Skull.
The gameplay repeats the traditional action movie formula: kill everyone in the line of sight, move on, from left to right. Each fighter excels in close combat, throws, and even has ranged attacks such as Captain America's flying shield, Hawkeye's arrows, or Iron Man Vision's energy beams. There are also several levels that Iron Man and the Vision spend in flight, and Captain America and Hawkeye astride an aircraft. These are traditional flying shooters, however, the levels are small and not as interesting as the fights. Only 5 stages, including New York, the sunken Atlantis and the Moon base.
The other Avengers: Wasp, Quicksilver, Wonder Man, and Namor the Sub-Mariner periodically come into play on our side, but their help can be called episodic. Naturally, the Red Skull has many more allies. No one even takes into account the countless number of soulless bots (Sentinels), but the bosses: Clow, Living Laser, Whirlwind, Wizard, Black Death, Juggernaut (from X-Men), Mandarin, Ultron and Skeleton (not counting the main villain and robotic giants). However, the villains would be happy not to get into a fight, but the Skull controls their minds with a special device.
Variations
The arcade original was produced in two cases. The first, traditional, is for 1 or two players, and the other is designed for four players at the same time.
Data East also released a version for the Sega Genesis (1992) developed by Opera House. It was possible to port close to the original, there are even voices (metal), but visually everything is faded and dull, the palette does not allow to accelerate as in the case of the original, and the backgrounds are very poorly drawn. Then the license for the release of subsequent games passed to Mindscape, and there were games of the same name for the Super NES, Game Boy, Game Gear, developed by Realtime Associates.
Super Nintendo (September 1993): cutscenes were simplified, no demo mode, non-arcade gameplay, higher difficulty, many phrases removed. Unlike the version for Sega, the background is richer and looks more attractive, however, it still falls short of the original.
Game Gear (1993), Game Boy (February 1994): stages are completely different, no pseudo 3D movement, both handheld-level implementations. The Game Boy has a poorer sound, a slightly noticeable lag in speed, of course there is no color and the background is poorer. The games are not identical.
Before the sale of the license, Data East managed to release another game of the same name for the NES (December 1991). Surprisingly, this is a completely different game, a platform action game with only two fighters available (Captain America and Hawkeye), while the other two are captured by the Mandarin. At the end of the game, you still have to clash with the Red Skull too. There is also a duel mode, however, it was made rather just for show. Between levels we move around the map, as was customary in many NES platformers. In general, the game is not difficult, and therefore not as interesting as the main line of action games. Nevertheless, anyone interested - be sure to read the manual, everything is interestingly told and shown there.
In the US arcade version, "America still needs your help!" can be heard on the follow-up screen.